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CX2SA > SAT 19.07.20 04:02z 405 Lines 17307 Bytes #999 (0) @ AMSAT
BID : ANS-201.01
Read: GUEST
Subj: ANS-201 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
Path: HB9ON<IW2OHX<IQ2LB<IK1NHL<CX2SA
Sent: 200719/0340Z @:CX2SA.SAL.URY.SOAM #:35241 [Salto] FBB7.00e $:ANS-201.01
From: CX2SA@CX2SA.SAL.URY.SOAM
To : SAT@AMSAT
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 201.01
From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD.
July 19, 2020
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-202.01
AMSAT Board of Directors Election Packages Mailed July 14
Brennan Price, N4QX, AMSAT Secretary reports that the ballots, candidate
statements, and return envelopes for the 2020 AMSAT Board of Directors
Election were prepared by Paladin Commercial Printing of Newington,
Connecticut. Paladin mailed the packages from Hartford, Connecticut, on
Tuesday, July 14, to members of record on July 1.
Non-US addresses were sent first class (the only option for overseas). US
addresses were sent pre-sorted standard, which is routine for mail that
requires a two-way response time measured in weeks, as this does.
Allowing for postal delivery standards and guard time, the Secretary will
not consider a ballot as lost in post any earlier than August 12 (four
weeks after the mailing). This timing permits a replacement ballot to be
mailed first class in both directions, even internationally, with time to
spare under prevailing postal delivery standards.
Paladin has shipped materials for 100 blank election packages to Price.
Price will use these materials to assemble and mail replacement or
substitute packages as necessary. These requests and packages will be
tracked and accounted against the voter list and returned ballots to
guard against duplicates, and will be identifiable against the package
mailed by Paladin for further verification and accounting by the tellers.
Members desiring a replacement ballot package should contact Price no
earlier than August 12.
The package is clearly labeled as election-related and contains:
1) An instruction and ballot sheet, with the ballot perforated,
2) A sheet of candidate statements, and
3) A No 9 return envelope, which bears the address to which ballots
should be returned and the member's name and address for
verification against the voter list and any replacement ballot
requests.
Secrecy at the time of counting will be maintained by separating the
ballot from the envelope without inspection, placing the ballot in a
receptacle, and scrutinizing the ballots after all have been separated
from the envelopes.
Ballots should be returned in the return envelopes provided to arrive at
the designated Post Office Box in Vienna, Virginia, by 5 p.m.
Thursday, September 15, 2020. Separation of the ballots from the
envelopes and counting will occur as soon thereafter as practicable, and
no later than September 30.
Brennan can be reached at brennanprice@verizon.net for a query about
membership status at any time or a replacement ballot after August 12.
[ANS thanks Brennan Price, N4QX, AMSAT Secretary for the above
information.]
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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the AMSAT office
is closed until further notice. For details, please visit
https://www.amsat.org/amsat-office-closed-until-further-notice/
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HO-107 is Back!
On the evening of July 17, 2020, Vlad Chorney, EU1SAT, tweeted
"Husky-1 ACTIVE!" with a screenshot from FoxTelem showing that he had
received telemetry from HO-107 (HuskySat-1) which had been silent for
nearly two months. About an hour after EU1SAT's tweet, the satellite
passed over the eastern United States and AMSAT command stations KO4MA
and N8MH copied telemetry. On subsequent passes, the satellite was
successfully commanded.
Please continue to copy telemetry in FoxTelem. If you have removed
HO-107 from your tracked satellites during its period of inactivity,
please add it back. The transponder remains disabled while AMSAT
Operations evaluates the telemetry from the satellite.
[ANS thanks AMSAT Operations for the above information]
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First Call for Papers - Virtual 2020 AMSAT Annual Meeting and Space
Symposium
This is the first call for papers for the Virtual 2020 AMSAT Annual
Meeting and Space Symposium to be held on October 17, 2020. Proposals for
papers and symposium presentations are invited on any topic of interest
to the amateur satellite community. Further details regarding the virtual
event will be announced shortly. We request a tentative title of your
presentation as soon as possible, with the final copy to be submitted by
October 5, 2020 for inclusion in the Symposium Proceedings. Abstracts and
papers should be sent to Dan Schultz at n8fgv(at)amsat.org
[ANS thanks Dan Schultz, N8FGV, for the above information]
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AMSAT's GOLF Program is about getting back to higher orbits, and it all
begins with GOLF-TEE - a technology demonstrator for deployable solar
panels, propulsion, and attitude control. Come along for the ride. The
journey will be worth it!
https://tinyurl.com/ANS-GOLF
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New D-STAR Reflector for AMSAT Use
It has been nearly two years since Walter Holmes, K5WH and friends
created the AMSAT DMR Talkgroup 98006 and has been working with great
success. About one year ago they created a YSF US AMSAT Reflector
11689 to pull in others using Yaesu System Fusion digital radios. As
these were working so well, they decided to bridge the two systems
together so it would longer matter which of these digital technologies
users had. Users could cross communicate between all users of both
systems.
After success with the DMR talkgroup and the YSF reflector for more than
a year, there was plenty of interest in adding D-STAR capability to the
same system.
Walter is happy to announce the creation of a new D-STAR reflector for
that purpose. It supports four different reflector names such as XLXSAT,
XRFSAT, DCSSAT, and REFSAT that are all linked together so that all of
these work the same. As most people that are familiar with D-STAR
reflectors know, they usually have numbers for the reflectors, but it
seemed more appropriate to switch from the number system to the Alpha
name like SAT to make it easier to find in the list.
For those using hotspots, they will need to refresh or update their
Pistar or BlueDV host files to see these entries before they will see
this one in the pull-down list.
Walter adds, "We recommend that users use module C for the AMSAT
conversations but several other modules are available if we find a need
to stretch out a bit. But, the C module is the one also linked to a few
other repeaters.
"The D-STAR SAT reflector is not currently bridged into the system as are
the DMR and YSF reflectors, but we hope to have that linked in very soon
after a little more testing.
"If you have D-STAR capability, we invite you to give it a try and see
how it works for you."
[ANS thanks Walter Holmes, K5WH for the above information]
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SpaceX to Launch AMSAT-EA EASAT-2 and Hades Satellites
Spain's national amateur radio society URE says SpaceX expect to launch
the EASAT-2 and Hades satellites in December 2020.
AMSAT-EA, the URE satellite group, is building the satellites together
with the European University of Madrid. The launch has been managed
through the space broker Alba Orbital based in Glasgow.
EASAT-2 and Hades will be launched into a sun-synchronous orbit between
500 km and 600 km and their main function is to act as analog and digital
repeaters for radio amateurs. There is also a camera for SSTV
transmissions provided by the Czech Republic that has already flown on
the United States Marine Academy PSAT-2 satellite, and has now been
adapted to fit into the PocketQube satellites.
Both satellites are based on the PocketQube 1.5P (7.5 x 5 x 5 cm)
architecture and represent an evolution of the previous GENESIS platform,
whose GENESIS-L and GENESIS-N satellites are expected to fly before the
end of the year with Firefly, in a joint collaboration with Fossa Systems
and LibreSpace, which also launch their own satellites, all of them
within the Picobus dispenser, developed by the latter.
IARU has coordinated these frequencies:
- Hades - uplink 145.925 MHz, downlink 436.888 MHz
- EASAT-2 - uplink 145.875 MHz, downlink 436.666 MHz
[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information.]
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Need new satellite antennas? Purchase Arrows, Alaskan Arrows,
and M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store. When you purchase through
AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards
Keeping Amateur Radio in Space.
https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/
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DARC Finds Unauthorized Transmissions in 144 MHz Satellite Band
The DARC reports unauthorized transmissions are taking place in the
144 MHz satellite segment of the 2M amateur radio primary allocation.
A translation of the DARC post reads:
"In the 144.010 MHz to 144.020 MHz range, illegally operated transmitters
are increasingly being operated as "water vitalizers"
or "water energizers". The manufacturer specifies 144.015 MHz as the
transmission frequency in its product description.
"The DARC EMC department asks for further information with location
information about conspicuous signals in this frequency range, in
preparation for collective complaints.
"The devices apparently generate fields with considerable field strength
and a long range. The signals appear increasingly in the morning or in
the evening. The illegal transmitters are typically in operation for 5 to
60 minutes (integer multiples of 5 minutes). The signal is generally very
stable in frequency, but occasionally shows short-term fluctuations of up
to a few 100 Hz. Otherwise the carrier is not further modulated.
The frequency range 144.000 MHz to 146.000 MHz is assigned to the Amateur
Radio service in Germany as the primary exclusive user."
A video of the interference caused by these devices and a map showing
some of the cases so far detected in Germany can be seen at
https://www.darc.de/der-club/referate/emv/
[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information.]
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1240-1300 MHz Discussed at CEPT SE-40 Meeting
The 69th meeting of CEPT ECC Working Group SE-40, held June 23-25,
discussed the Amateur Radio 1240-1300 MHz band, the meeting documents are
now available.
Several contributions were received for the ECC Report dealing with the
coexistence between the radionavigation-satellite service and the amateur
service in the frequency band 1240 - 1300 MHz. The contributions were
incorporated in the draft ECC Report. The CPG arrangements for the
preparation of WRC-23 for AI 9.1 topic b) was noted.
The Russian Federation noted:
- 1240-1260 MHz is by the GLONASS system
- 1260-1300 MHz are used by EU's Galileo, Beijing's Beidou, Japan's
QZSS and is planned to be used by Korea's KPS.
Among the documents available in Input, Info and Minutes are:
- SE40(20)052 Amateur Repeaters - IARU-R1
- SE40(20)051 Section 2 update WI_39 - IARU-R1
- SE40(20)050 Annex Draft report RNSS Amateur - Russian Federation
- SE40(20)049 Suggestions for RNSS and Amateur Service Compatibility,
Russian Federation
- Info 1 Amateur repeaters 23 cm - IARU-R1
- Info 3 Letter to SE40 chairman on updated of ITU-R M.1092 -
European Commission
- Minutes
- SE40(20)56A3 (1) Draft Report Amateur vs RNSS
Download the meeting documents from https://tinyurl.com/ANS-201-CEPT.
[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information.]
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IARU Coordinates Two New Satellites
- HIAPO
HIAPO is a 1U CubeSat mission that is a unique platform being used to
provide engaging meaningful hands-on STEM curriculum for Hawaii students
K-12. Part of this curriculum involves obtaining data about solar flares
solar particle events and the disturbances of the Earth's magnetic field.
The students can also collect data on solar events with relation to the
propagation of radio waves reflected or refracted back towards the Earth
from the ionosphere. During the lifespan of this mission that data will
be available for amateur operators to download directly from the
satellite.
The Hawaii Science & Technology Museum was awarded a no-cost flight of
the launch and a limited resources will not allow the development of an
Amateur Radio digipeater. However if the launch date slips they plan to
work with resources at AMSAT to develop a digipeater.
Proposing a UHF downlink using 9k6 FSK with AX25. Planning a Firefly
launch from Vandenberg in July 2020 into a 300 km orbit with 137 degree
inclination together with Serenity and Spinnaker 3. A downlink on 437.225
MHz has been coordinated.
- VZLUSAT-2
VZLUSAT-2 is 3U CubeSat project of the University of West Bohemia in
Pilsen and Czech Aerospace Research Centre. Students from four Czech
technical universities are involved along with members of an Amateur
Radio community from The Czech Republic.
The primary payload is the experimental Earth observation camera with an
expected resolution around 30 to 50 m GSD. Secondary payloads of the
mission are Radiation Orbital Monitor, Gama Ray Burst detector, X-ray
detector and other sensors. This mission is fully open to Radio Amateurs
who were also involved in the development of the satellite.
The space segment uses two Amateur bands for communication: An S-band for
payload data downlink (DVBS2 ETSI EN 302 307 standard, 2 MBd, QPSK), and
UHF downlink beacon (GMSK 1200 Bd), telecommand uplink ( GMSK, 1200 Bd -
9600 Bd) and telemetry downlink (GMSK 4800, 9600 Bd).
All the information is in an open format and everything needed for
decoding is or will be published at:
https://www.pilsencube.zcu.cz/vzlusat2/transmission.pdf.
Planning a launch from Cape Canaveral in the time window from December
2020 to March 2021 into SSO 500-600 km. A downlink on
437.325 MHz has been coordinated.
[ANS thanks the IARU for the above information.]
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AMSAT, along with our ARISS partners, is developing an amateur
radio package, including two-way communication capability, to
be carried on-board Gateway in lunar orbit.
Support AMSAT's projects today at https://www.amsat.org/donate/
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Upcoming Satellite Operations
Quick Hits:
- Need Hawaii? On AO-7 Most days. NH7WN for a schedule.
- EN85, 86 and maybe 75 and 76, July 11-25. @AA8CH for a schedule.
- FN44/54, 7/22 - 7/31, KQ2RP: Just like last time, FM only.
- FN11+21 then 12+22 grid lines, 7/25, @NS3L Steve is heading out to
these lines. Schedule to come.
- EN20/30 Line, July 28-31, @KX9X Sean is moving quickly towards
his VUCC/R award by heading out again for two more grids. Watch his
Twitter for details.
- DM97/98 & EM08/09: Super Rover @AD0DX is heading out for the Kansas
QSO party and N0E. More to come.
Major Roves:
- @WY7AA is heading out again!
Mon 7/20 DN67/68. All SSB and FM passes from about 1600-0400.
Tue 7/21 DN57/58. All SSB and FM passes from about 1600-0400.
Wed 7/22 Travel day no sats.
Thu 7/23 DN55/56. All SSB and FM passes from about 1600-0400.
Fri 7/24 DN65/66. All SSB and FM passes from about 1600-0400.
Watch his QRZ page for details and updates.
[ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL for the above information.]
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Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events
No events posted.
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ARISS News
No pending school operations.
[ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N for the above information.]
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Shorts from All Over
- Sean Kutzko, KX9X To Present "Working Satellites" at DXE Virtual
Hamfest and DX Academy July 25, 2020
Join Sean on Saturday, July 25, 2020 at 10:15 EDT for his thirty- minute
presentation on Amateur Radio satellites. Sean's presentation is part of
the DX Engineering Virtual Hamfest and DX Academy. The event is free and
open to all. Register at https://tinyurl.com/ANS-201-Sean
- Behind Scenes SpaceX Crew Dragon Mission You Haven't Seen
NASA has just released a new video. It starts with "You saw history made
with the first crewed launch and docking of the SpaceX Crew Dragon, but
you didn't see the flurry of activity on board the International Space
Station...until now.
"Join Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy and his crew mates as they
prepare their cameras to document the DM-2 launch, and look over their
shoulders to witness the new American spacecraft dock to the station and
deliver their new crew mates."
Watch the twelve minute video at https://tinyurl.com/ANS-201-Dragon.
[ANS thanks http://spaceref.com for the above information.]
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